Children’s statements

In child abuse investigations and trials, the statements of the child are often the crucial (sometimes the only) evidence that a crime occurred. And the child’s earliest statements to adults about the supposed abuse...

Almost twenty years after he was convicted of child molestation, an Olympia, Washington man has been released from prison because his accuser recanted. Jerry Lee Brock has been released, having been imprisoned since 1995...

The Washington Legislature has ordered the state’s school directors to develop a policy for providing companions to children who are interviewed at school by police and CPS. The legislature did so by passing Senate...

The Washington Legislature has authorized children to testify by closed-circuit television in circumstances not previously allowed. When a court authorizes this procedure, a child witness testifies at a criminal trial without coming into the...

A wrongful murder conviction occurred in part because a three-year-old boy’s eyewitness account of the murder was ignored by police. This is among the disturbing revelations in “The Innocent Man,” a gripping account in...

A landmark decision of the Oregon Supreme Court provides bases for new challenges to the admissibility of some children’s statements and testimony. The case is State v. Lawson, 352 Or. 724 (Nov. 29, 2012)....

A scholarly article on deception by children prompts ideas for questioning adverse child witnesses in pre-trial interviews and depositions. The article, “Children’s lies and their detection: Implications for child witness testimony,” by psychology professors...